279 - THARAUD, Jérôme and Jean, and MADRASSI, Lucien. A Kingdom of God.

THARAUD, Jérôme and Jean, and MADRASSI, Lucien. A Kingdom of God. Paris, Lapina, 1925. In-4 (29.5 x 20.5 cm), red half-maroquin with stripes, ivory vellum on the covers, decorated with gilded foliage. Gilded head. Covers and spine intact. 261 pp., etchings. Slight scuffs on the front cover. Etching ink transfer on the facing pages. Deluxe edition and first illustrated edition, featuring 86 original etchings by Lucien Madrassi (1881–1956) depicting Jews from Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Limited edition of 435 copies. This one is one of 304 printed on pure-rag Vergé Hollande paper (nos. 97–400) and bears the number 391. A novel by Jérôme and Jean Tharaud, remarkably illustrated by Lucien Madrassi (1881–1956), an artist and portraitist of complex talent who sought above all to capture on faces the traces of souls... To create this work, he traveled to the ghetto regions of Galicia and Subcarpathian Russia in order to imbue the Tharaud brothers’ work with all that rich authenticity that could only arise from documentation gathered firsthand. The material gathered by Madrassi, which he brought to life so masterfully, makes this edition the most moving of art books. A very fine, untrimmed copy, bound by René Kieffer, with the half-title page featuring an autographed dedication by the Tharaud brothers: “To Mr. Charles Duvet, with warm regards...”.